The Hidden History of Verse Forty - Number Twenty-One

Ezekiel represents those who have had a work of instruction accomplished for them by the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and His basic instruction is “line upon line.”

Currently the Lion of the tribe of Judah is opening up the book of Ezekiel. We are informed that Ezekiel is a priest in the thirtieth year, whether “thirty” represents his symbolic age as a priest, or the thirtieth year in the prophetic line that began at Josiah’s Great Passover. The final priesthood of the latter days is the one hundred and forty-four thousand, and the ancient literal histories typify a symbolic history in the latter days.

Ezekiel is a symbol of God’s people in the latter days–the sacred history which every prophetic testimony identifies. That sacred history is the movement of the third angel, which was especially typified by the movement of the first angel in 1840. The movement of the first angel was the alpha angel of the three angels, and the third is the omega angel. Ezekiel is therefore aligned with Peter in the sealing time of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. The symbolic history of both Peter and Ezekiel is located at and is represented in the history of Panium.

Ezekiel takes the little book, as did John in Revelation ten.

In Revelation ten, John eats the little book, and the entire chapter represents the manifestation of the power of God from August 11, 1840, until October 22, 1844.

Ezekiel is aligned with John in chapter ten of Revelation, so Peter, John and Ezekiel stand together in their allotted place during the sealing time of the one hundred and forty-four thousand.

1840 to 1844 represents a four-year-period that began when the time prophecy that began with a one-hundred-and-fifty-year period on July 27, 1299. Those “five months” ended and joined with the time prophecy of three hundred ninety-one years and fifteen days that concluded on August 11, 1840, when the glorious manifestation of the power of God was manifested until October 22, 1844. Then the application of prophetic time ceased.

Prophetic time ended as a valid application of prophecy on October 22, 1844. Ezekiel, Peter and John each represent God’s wise virgins of the movement of the first and second angels and also the movement of the third angel.

The first ‘eleven’ chapters of Ezekiel present a series of “visions” as set forth in verse one of chapter one.

The “visions” of the first eleven chapters was first given in chapter one by the river of Chebar, then it was enlarged upon in chapter three’s vision on the “plain” and then again in chapter eight’s vision at Jerusalem. The three locations of the river of Chebar, the plain and Jerusalem represent three visions that together make up one vision, which is the “visions” of verse one and of the first ‘eleven’ chapters.

Considering the thirtieth year as the thirtieth year of the Jubilee cycle that began at Josiah's famous Passover, and then ended on October 22, is easily supportable, for that particular line of sacred history is portrayed distinctly, line upon line with more than one witness. As an example, Passover represents the spring feasts and the day of atonement represents the fall feasts. Leviticus twenty-three is therefore aligned with the Jubilee cycle that began with Josiah. There are other lines that align with the history represented by king Josiah unto October 22, 573 BC. The historical fulfillment on October 22, 573 BC, of a Jubilee year is supported by the historians.

The chronologists are generally comfortable with placing the day of atonement as October 22, 573 BC, and 622 BC is also accepted by those biblical chronologists as the date of Josiah’s Great Passover. The Passover, a symbol of the spring feasts, began a forty-nine-year Jubilee cycle that ended at the symbol of the fall feasts on the day of atonement. The seven weeks of years that made up forty-nine years were the symbols of the Sabbath of the land.

Zedekiah had been taken to Babylon when Jerusalem fell fourteen years before 573 BC. The Jewish historians identify the Jubilee cycle from Josiah in 622 to October 22, 573, as the 17th Jubilee cycle. The period from the battle of Raphia to the battle of Panium was seventeen years. Ptolemy was the victor at the battle of Raphia, and he reigned as the king of the south for seventeen years. From the Edict of Milan until Constantine divided his empire in 330 was seventeen years. In the seventeenth Jubilee cycle Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.

Hosea is addressing a subject that has direct bearing on the captivity of Zedekiah, though it also represents the beginning of captivity for the northern kingdom in 723 BC. The reason Hosea’s passage connects with Ezekiel’s testimony has to do with the rejection of God when Israel insisted on a human king. Israel’s desire to be ruled by a human king, rather than a Divine king, is represented as “the pride of your power” in the judgment of "seven times" in Leviticus 26.

The “pride of your power” represents Israel's desire to be like the world and have their own king. The removal of the king from the northern kingdom in 723 BC and then the captivity of king Zedekiah of the southern kingdom in 586 BC represent the breaking of the “pride” of ancient Israel, and pride precedes a fall. In Bible prophecy a “power” is a king or kingdom, and the pride of Israel in securing a human king marks the rejection of the theocracy and the Divine king.

Prophetically the pride of the power of Judah was broken when Manasseh was taken captive into Babylon and Judah was in subjection to foreign power from then on. Zedekiah represents the final end of the progressive breaking of the pride of their power.

It is to be noted that at that point Israel rejected not only God as their king, but also the Spirit of Prophecy, as represented by Samuel, for it states, “they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee.”

The last deception for the theocracy of ancient Israel was a rejection of not only God, but also the Spirit of Prophecy. That rejection in 1097 BC typifies the last deception of Laodicean Seventh-day Adventism in 1863. The “seven times” of Leviticus twenty-six is the Word of God, and the Spirit of Prophecy states of the “seven times” that it “should not be altered.”

The Spirit of Prophecy obviously endorsed the “seven times,” and her endorsement was a warning not to change the figures on the chart, of which the "seven times" is the center column and the upper right-hand corner. With Uriah Smith’s counterfeit chart in 1863, the progressive rejection of the foundational truths, typified by ancient Israel in their rejection of God and the Spirit of Prophecy, identified the rebellion of 1863. The date of the 1863 rebellion aligns with the prophetic line set forth in the book of Ezekiel. In that line of history, the conclusion was the destruction of Jerusalem, which typified the Sunday law. 1863 to the soon-coming Sunday law was typified by the history of king Saul in 1097 BC to Zedekiah in 586 BC.

Zedekiah was taken captive to Babylon fourteen years before the Jubilee of 573 BC. The seventeenth Jubilee cycle began in 622 BC, and in the thirtieth year Ezekiel is set forth as a priest in 592 BC, then five years later Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 BC. It was destroyed on the same day of the year as it was destroyed the second time in AD 70 by Titus. Verse one of Ezekiel one is five years before Jerusalem’s destruction and nineteen years before the temple vision of chapter forty.

For disobedience unto the covenant of the Sabbath of the land, God identified that “seven times” would be the curse for disobedience to the seventh year, which is the Sabbath of the land. “Time” is a year, and a “year” is three hundred and sixty days, and seven times three hundred and sixty is twenty-five hundred and twenty years. The Millerites may not have employed the expression of “the twenty-five twenty,” but both their sacred charts identified numerically the twenty-five hundred and twenty years.

The pronouncement of the curse of seven times upon both the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah was the first, or you can say the ‘foundational,’ or you might even say the “alpha” understanding of William Miller. In 1863 the Laodicean Seventh-day Adventist church rejected the foundational understanding of Miller’s discoveries—“discoveries” that represented the entire foundation of the Millerite movement. Inspiration warned directly that this might happen, and it has, and it happened a long time ago.

The foundation to the temple that was rebuilt after the captivity in Babylon was finished during the history of the first decree, and before the second decree. The temple was fully built in the history of the second decree. In the third decree national sovereignty was restored to literal ancient Israel. William Miller represented the first angel that arrived in 1798 and was empowered on August 11, 1840. The second angel arrived after the foundations were laid, as represented by the 1843 chart, which was published in May of 1842. At the first disappointment of 1844, the alpha disappointment of 1844, the second angel and also the tarrying time in the parable of the virgins arrived, and when the second angel’s message was empowered at the Exeter camp meeting the temple was finished. Then at the great, or omega disappointment of 1844, the Messenger of the Covenant suddenly came to His temple, in fulfillment of the twenty-three hundred years that began at the third decree and ended at the arrival of the third angel.

Josiah means ‘the foundation of God.’ Whether it’s king Josiah or Josiah Litch, both are symbols of the foundations, as represented in the history of the first decree and as represented by the spring feasts set forth in the first twenty-two verses of Leviticus twenty-three. The foundations, the spring feasts and the first decree are all symbols of 1840 and the empowerment of the first angel. October 22, 573 BC, as set forth in Ezekiel chapter forty and verse one, is a symbol of October 22, 1844, and the opening of the judgment of the dead, and also a symbol of September 11, 2001, at the opening of the judgment of the living. Any who have been following these articles should know the applications I am employing.

Ezekiel is a symbol within the prophetic history represented in His writings. Ezekiel is there when the twenty-five men bow to the sun at the end of chapter eight. He was also there in the next chapters as ‘the sealing that is followed by the slaughtering’ is brought upon Jerusalem, which Ellen White identifies as the Seventh-day Adventist church. In the first eleven chapters, Ezekiel is brought into the heavenly sanctuary to receive his instructions, as were the Millerites called to do in 1844, and as this movement is now being called to do.

When we reach the point in the latter days that the things Ezekiel illustrated are repeating in God’s people, then we have reached the sign of Ezekiel. When you know that Ezekiel represents the one hundred and forty-four thousand, and you know it to a level of faith and understanding that possesses the sanctified expectation that everything illustrated by Ezekiel in his writings typifies a sacred sequence of events in the latter days involving the one hundred and forty-four thousand—when you know that, then “ye shall know” “the Lord” is “God.”

We will continue these thoughts in the next article.